Birth of Heroes
by bigbill16
Summary: An invasion of Eggman's base goes horribly wrong, resulting in Sonic and his friends getting warped to Earth. When Eggman starts terrorizing the local city, they realize they are the only ones who can protect the citizens.
1. Invading the Base

**Author's note: This story is my version of how Sonic and his friends came to our world, and how they came to be renowned as heroes. Events from Sonic 3 for the Genesis are alluded to. However, in this story, they have yet to use the power of the emeralds to create Super Sonic. I do not own any of these marvelous characters. Please enjoy!**

Birth of Heroes

Chapter 1 Invading the Base

Sonic peered around the corner to see if any swatbots were coming. He shivered slightly as his bare skin leaned against the cold, metal wall. He often prided himself on being void of fear in even the most dangerous situations. However, this was the first time he had ever attempted to infiltrate the base of Dr. Eggman. He stared down the hallway until he was sure it was safe to travel. He turned the corner and made it to the other end of the corridor in the blink of an eye.

"Tails," he whispered, speaking into the intercom device on his wrist. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I read you loud and clear," came the young, boyish response from the blue hedgehog's communicator. "You all right? You don't sound like yourself." Sonic could hear the sounds of the keyboard from the other end; the two-tailed fox was working hard to hack into Eggman's systems to get a layout of the base.

"Gee, I don't know, Tails, maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're trying to infiltrate Eggman's lair." He listened to his own voice and confirmed that he didn't like it. For someone who always tried to stay cool and collected, he was scaring even himself with how frazzled he sounded. He took a deep breath; he was immediately suffocated with the thick industrial smell of machine oil.

"Hey, it's not exactly a picnic on this end." There was a slight pause as the fox continued to frantically jam away at his keyboard. "This would be a lot faster if I didn't need to keep looking over my shoulder for Eggman's robots."

Sonic kneeled down for a moment to collect his thoughts, trying to get the dirty, mechanical taste out of his mouth. "Isn't that the whole reason you have Mighty with you? He fall asleep on the job or something?"

"No, I sent him on ahead," Tails responded promptly. "I took another look at the layout and decided it'd be better to have him check one side of the base while you check the other. We still don't even know what we're searching for, let alone where to search for it. The more ground we can cover, the better."

Sonic reluctantly nodded to himself as he listened to the plan. He knew Tails would be mad at him for worrying so much about him. The two-tailed fox had proven he could take care of himself; but Sonic couldn't get over being protective of his best friend. "Alright, buddy, you're the boss," he said as he started to stretch the legs. "Where ya got me headin', then? The main path branches off to the right in addition to going straight."

Sonic waited impatiently as he listened to Tails typing vigorously once again, a sound effect that was becoming irritating. "It looks like the right path only succeeds in getting you to the other side of the base, which is Mighty's territory now. Head straight; the elevator shouldn't be too far ahead. You can reach Mighty on the intercom if you need to communicate with him."

The "click" on the intercom confirmed that Tails had switched off, signaling Sonic to start moving. Sonic took a short glance before running full-speed down the hallway, constantly on the lookout for hiding spots in case any robots appeared. He passed by several security cameras without paying any mind toward them; he knew his kitsune friend had already taken care of them. As he approached the end of the hallway, he encountered a solitary swatbot that had been left on guard duty. Before Eggman's metallic minion had anytime to alert the intruder, Sonic had blown through it with a spin attack. "Not defenses I'd expect from Eggman," said Sonic as he looked around the immediate area. He expected that this one was part of a squadron of robots, but no others seemed to be running to help their fallen comrade. "Surely they heard me." Sonic stayed and waited to see if any other robots would pass by, and decided to call Mighty after nothing happened.

"Sonic, that you?" came the strong voice of the armadillo from the other end. "Need any help on your end?"

"Nah, that's just it. Eggman's left practically no defenses in the main hallways. What about you? Any action on your end?"

The snicker on the other end told Sonic that his friend hadn't found anything either. "You kiddin'? I was so convinced we were in the wrong base I called Tails to check. This place seems deserted; definitely not what I expected when Knuckles told me about this mission."

The mention of the echidna put a frown on Sonic's face as he made his way past the fallen robot into a circular room. He looked around quickly at the controls, but continued on. He knew Eggman wouldn't leave whatever it was they were looking for unguarded. "By the way, nice of your friend to help us out in our time of need. I mean don't get me wrong, you certainly add some cheerfulness to the team. But is it really more important to stare at that giant green rock than help us out?"

Sonic's frustration with the red echidna was met with a chuckle from Mighty. "Sonic, trying to understand Knuckles will only frustrate you more. He's not that bad once you get to know him a little. He's just complicated." There was a pause as Mighty thought about other words that might describe the antisocial creature. "And a bit stubborn."

Sonic chuckled quietly at his friend's severe understatement. "Yeah, just a bit." He kept up the quick pace until he made it to an elevator shaft at the end of the corridor. "Hey, Mighty, I made it to an elevator shaft. How bout you?" He peered inside to inspect it as he waited for a response from the other end. He saw that the base consisted of five floors, and knew it'd be too dangerous to make a wild assumption of where the secret weapon might be kept. He scratched his head while thinking about the mission; they didn't even know if it was a weapon he was guarding.

"Roger that, Sonic. I've run across one as well." Sonic noticed that the reception was getting considerably worse. This was to be expected from delving deeper into the base, but he didn't think it'd happen this soon.

"Sounds like we're breaking up," said Sonic as he pressed the button for the second floor. "I'll check out the second and third floor; you handle the top two. Hopefully we can keep in contact with Tails if we run into any trouble."

He heard a faint crackling from his communicator as a door closed on the elevator. The sides of the elevator were made of glass, so Sonic tried to avoid getting nauseated by the sight of the walls, covered with several lights and digital screens, rushing by him. The elevator caused him to lunge forward as it shook while slowing down. Sonic slowly walked through the double doors as they opened, still unable to shake the uneasy feeling the mission gave him. He couldn't pinpoint a reason, but he figured it was due to how vague the mission was. Knuckles came to him and Tails to inform them that he had heard about a machine that Eggman was building; a machine that could help cement his takeover of Mobius.

Sonic shook his head to clear his thoughts as he sidled up against the wall. A loud crackling and some indiscernible words came from his communicator, and he was barely able to recognize it as Mighty's voice. "What's that, Mighty, I didn't get all of that."

"I think I figured out where Eggman placed all his robots," came the voice from Sonic's communicator. He immediately noticed the change in his voice. He peered around the corner, making sure he was at an angle where he could see around the corner without being spotted. Unlike most of the base he had encountered thus far, he was greeted with a whole squadron of swatbots filling up the hallway. And they didn't seem very perplexed as to his whereabouts.

"Shit!"

Tails was cut from his concentration when the whole room started flashing red. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" came the flat, robotic voice from all over the base. He took a quick scan of the immediate perimeter; his position had not been discovered yet. He continued to jam away at his laptop in hopes of finding the exact location of Eggman's weapon. However, this time his code hacking was met with a symbol in the shape of a laughing Eggman head.

"You gotta be kidding me!" shouted a frustrated Tails as he tried getting past the security. "Why now?" The more he typed, the more symbols he saw pop up on the screen; soon the whole page was filled with laughing Eggman heads. He grabbed his head in frustration as he tried to tune out the blaring sirens and the robotic voice. He looked at the screen to see if he could still make out the positions of his two comrades. When he saw the diagram, it all hit him like a punch in the face.

Sonic was on the second floor while Mighty was on the fifth. As far as he could tell, they had just gotten off their respective elevators when the alert sounded; the elevators were now shut down. "It's a setup," he said as he observed the amount of robots closing in on his friends. "That's why there were no defenses on the first floor. That's why it was so easy to hack his systems. He had the ability to stop me the whole time; he wanted to wait for us to separate." Before he could manage any more thoughts, he felt a metallic punch hit his left cheek. He looked up and realized that he had been too lost in his thoughts to realized that his location had be compromised. The robot that hit him walked towards him as three more entered the hallway behind him.

"Sonic, Mighty, it's all a setup, we gotta retreat." He flew over the first robot to avoid the machine gun fire. As soon as he was overhead, he spun into a ball and went right through its metallic armor. "Sonic, Mighty, do you read?" He was sent flying back as a missile exploded a few feet in front of him. He sat up and shook his head to clear his vision; the hallway appeared to shift from left to right before centering back into focus. He discarded his headset, which only transmitted static due to the explosion. In front of him, he saw the line of three robots coming towards him, the one in the lead being sure to step over the shattered remains of his laptop. He checked behind him to see two more swatbots entering the hallway from the other side.

"You blew up my laptop," said Tails, directing his comment towards the lead robot. He stood up and dusted himself off; he had a few scratches on his legs, but nothing too serious. "I liked that laptop." Before the robot could lift its gun, he ran straight at it; he noticed its clunky, lethargic movements as it failed to move its head fast enough. He slid under it and used his spinning tails to sweep its legs from under it, sending it to the ground. He heard the missile coming from behind him as he rolled out of the way and watched it destroy the next robot in line. The fox grimaced as bits of shrapnel scraped by his face, giving him several deep gashes. Amidst the explosion, Tails scrambled behind the last swatbot he was facing. He grabbed hold of its machine gun and used it to destroy the two swatbots that entered from the other side. He struggled to keep the robot from shaking him off its back. Once he confirmed that he was grappling with the last one, he jumped off it and swiped through its metal frame with his tails.

As the last robot slowly fell apart in a heap of metal, Tails collapsed to the ground and started breathing heavily. As long as he could remember, that was the most action he had ever been a part of by himself. He had always fought side by side with his blue best friend. The use-the-robot's-gun trick happened to be a tactic he learned from Sonic. He remembered the hedgehog using that move when he first met him, when Tails's town was under attack by swatbots.

Tails got off all fours and sat up against the wall, feeling the blood trickle down his face. He knew he had more important things to do than reminisce, but he needed to recover what strength he had left. And in addition to that, he didn't even know what to do next. He had lost all communication with Sonic and Mighty, and it appeared that the whole base was on lockdown. He had to figure out a way to help them. He figured the other two would be dealing with a lot more robots since they were closer to where Eggman's weapon was located.

"Eggman's weapon," Tails said to himself, realizing how exhausted he sounded. "There may not even be a weapon. Eggman knew we were infiltrating the base; he may have leaked false information on purpose. It was Knuckles who told us about this thing, after all." The fox once again caught himself reminiscing as he thought back to the time he first met the echidna. It wasn't a great first impression, as the echidna proceeded to ambush him and Sonic and take the seven chaos emeralds they had possessed at the time. It was later they found out Knuckles had been tricked by Eggman into believing Sonic wanted to steal the Master Emerald, the power source of Knuckles's floating island. Tails hated being one to judge off of first impressions, but that instance placed Knuckles in his mind as someone easily deceived. He had yet to warm up to the echidna, and even Sonic seemed unsure at times whether to consider him a friend or not.

The fox's keen ears perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. He quickly surveyed his surroundings and noticed the lack of any real hiding place. It sounded like only one swatbot, so his best bet was to trounce it before it had any chance of using its artillery. He leaned against the wall right next to the corner, listening for the sound of its footsteps to indicate when it got close. He waited until he saw the top of its shadow, and swung around the corner leading with his right fist.

If Tails had not been drained of energy and thinking more clearly, he would have noticed the footsteps were not clunky and metallic like a swatbot. He also would have picked up on the dreadlocks in the shadow of the oncoming figure. "Well that's ironic," said Tails, whose fist was being held by the echidna he had just been accusing of getting tricked.

"What is?" responded Knuckles in his low, rough voice. He had his usual no-nonsense face on, and didn't seem to be in a hurry to loosen his grip on Tails's hand.

"Never mind," said Tails, shaking his head. He realized that Knuckles was the perfect solution for the mess they were in, therefore upsetting him would not be the best idea. "Do you think you could release my hand, though?"

Knuckles slowly relaxed the fingers that were around Tails's fist; he made sure to keep his eyes fixated on the fox the whole time. "Heard the alarm go off." He nodded to the flashing red lights and the speakers that contained the robotic voice. "I figured things weren't quite going as planned."

Tails wanted to remark that he shouldn't have waited for an alarm to sound to come help them, but he once again quelled his thoughts. "You can say that again; Eggman knew we were coming. Sonic and Mighty are separated and probably up to their necks in swatbots, and the elevators are shut down."

Knuckles hit his fists together, something he often did when he knew he would be using them soon. "Do you know where they are?"

Without warning, Tails grabbed Knuckles and started flying upwards, something he wouldn't have done without asking if it was a normal situation. "Sonic should still be on the floor right above us; Mighty should be on the fifth. You can break through the floors, right?"

Knuckles, having gotten over the sudden elevation, flashed a smile, something not often seen on his face. "Shouldn't be a problem." As soon as the fox got close to the ceiling, Knuckles jumped off and did an uppercut right through the floor. He blew the bits of metal off his hands as Tails flew through the hole he made.

"Nice work," Tails said, amazed at how easy he made it look.

"Go and meet up with Sonic," said Knuckles in a commanding voice, ignoring the fox's compliment. "I'll head up to the fifth and help Mighty."

Before Tails could interject, or even confirm that he understood the orders, Knuckles jumped into the air and made another hole up to the third floor.

Mighty punched through another two robots, but there seemed to be no end to them. He kicked another out of the way as he attempted to move forward through the hallway. That had been his strategy thus far; do enough damage to make the path accessible. He didn't have the time or the stamina to try to take out all the robots. As if on cue, he watched a swatbot standing in front of him get obliterated in an instant by Knuckles, who seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Good to see you decided to join the party," commented Mighty, going down and sweeping the legs of three more robots.

"Have you found the machine, yet?" asked Knuckles, taking off the head of the nearest robot.

"I've been too busy dealing with these guys." He grabbed the nearest robot and used it to pave the way by throwing it into a line of robots. "You keep doing what you're doing; I'll check this room." Mighty headed towards the door as he heard Knuckles give a barbaric yell behind him; he smiled as he heard a mix of shattering metal and explosions.

He punched the door down and ran in. He was no longer worried about stealth and caution, since the whole base knew of their whereabouts. He appeared to be in one of the main manufacturing rooms for Eggman's mass production of robots. Although he wasn't too keen on the idea of leaving the scene undisturbed, he knew he had other matters to attend to. However, he was not expecting to be staring into the eyes of Knuckles when he turned around, which caused him to jump back a few steps.

"All finished with the robots?" asked Mighty, letting out a sigh of relief.

"For now." Knuckles examined his hands to check if bits of robot were still clinging to them. The first thing Mighty learned about Knuckles was that he was usually on one extreme end of the calm spectrum. He was currently displaying his amazing ability to stay calm despite the loud sirens and masses of robots coming for them. Just moments ago he was displaying the other end of the spectrum; the insane fighter who appeared when you made him angry or challenged his pride.

"Including this room, I think I've scanned this whole floor," said Mighty after a moment of silence. He peered around the echidna to see if anymore swatbots were on the way. "So we should probably head down to the fourth floor and check it out, which shouldn't be too much of a problem since you were nice enough to provide us with a staircase."

Knuckles chuckled quietly before nodding at Mighty's suggestion, and turning around to lead the way. Mighty smiled as he followed Knuckles out the doorway and to the right, where the hole that he created was located. He still didn't understand why, but the echidna seemed to enjoy his company far more than that of Sonic and Tails. He wasn't sure if it was because they were both gifted with immense strength, or that they both enjoyed the beauty of nature, or some other strange reason. All he knew was that Knuckles was an invaluable friend to have, which made being on his good side an important objective.

Sonic continued to make his way around the entire second floor, taking out any robots that got in his way. Every room he checked proved unsuccessful; none of them held any sort of doomsday machine.

"Sonic!" came the familiar cry of the young fox.

"Tails!" Sonic stopped quickly, his speed driving him forward a few feet despite skidding to a halt. He turned around to witness the kitsune flyer swiping through robots with his tails. He got down on one knee in a sprinting position with his head angled toward the floor. He spun in place for a few seconds, making a sound comparable to an engine being revved. In a split second, he had burst through a line of ten swatbots occupying the path between him and Tails.

"Good to see you're alright," said Sonic, wiping his arm across his face, a feat that only managed to get his face dirtier.

"Guessing you haven't found anything yet?" Tails broke his concentration in order to avoid the swipe of a robot. He slid against the wall to avoid a line of bullets from another robot, before grabbing the nearest one and using it as a shield.

"Zilch." The hedgehog took out his frustration by grabbing a nearby swatbot and slamming it head-first into the wall. "And I've gone through the whole floor. Hell, I've probably double-checked every room by now trying to avoid Eggman's goons."

"Lucky for us," said Tails, pausing to tail swipe another robot, "Knuckles was nice enough to show up, and left us an entrance to the third floor."

"What, did he lose interest in his precious stone?" Sonic jumped behind the last remaining robot on his side and grabbed its gun, using it to take out the remaining mechas on Tails's side.

"I had those," said the fox, getting defensive. Without warning, he started moving in the direction he came from, where the hole left by Knuckles was located.

Sonic ran after him, but not without laying waste to more of Eggman's minions. He skidded to a stop a few feet behind the fox, who was situated under a hole in the ceiling. Sonic chuckled upon seeing the familiar sight of the destruction left behind in the wake of Knuckles's fists. He heard the sound of more robots heading their way and nodded at Tails, giving him the go-ahead to lift him up to the third floor.

"So I've been thinking," the fox remarked as Sonic watched the robots gather around where the duo had previously stood. "What if this whole thing was a hoax set up by Eggman? It's obvious he knew we were coming; he waited until the three of us were separated before activating his online security systems and locking down the base. What if he purposely leaked out that information?"

Sonic jumped out of Tails's arms onto the floor. He noticed that there were no swatbots around, which was likely due to the fact that most had been sent to the second and fifth to take out him and Mighty. But he knew Eggman would soon have them flooding the third floor, and didn't plan on waiting for their arrival. "So what, you think Knuckles got duped again?" asked Sonic, tapping his foot impatiently. "Cuz that sure wouldn't surprise me." The hedgehog nodded in the direction of the nearest hallway, indicating to the fox that they should start searching before getting bogged down by swatbots. Sonic led the way as Tails continued the conversation whilst traveling in the hedgehog's wake.

"I'd say it's a very distinct possibility." Sonic would have to remind himself to have a talk with the gullible echidna later. He passed through a large doorway, noting the lack of swatbots around the perimeter. The fox was close behind; Sonic forgot how fast the kid was when he used his tails as a propeller while running.

Sonic pounded the wall in frustration; he knew Knuckles was trying to help, but it was frustrating how easily manipulated the echidna was. "You'd think by now he'd have learned to not trust Eggman, especially after that fiasco on Angel Island."

Before Tails could interject, they both jumped at the sound of a metal door closing off the entrance they had passed through.

"Now, now," came a sinister voice from deep within the room. "That's not very nice of you, Sonic. Blaming me when you have no proof. Why, I haven't seen that gullible guardian since I jolted him with a billion volts of electricity. Though I must admit, I've been dying to repay him for destroying Metal Sonic."

The echo caused by the room, couple with the dim lighting, made it hard for Sonic to figure out where the voice was coming from. "Enough games, Eggman!" he called out into the air. "You wanted us and now you have us, so show yourself." He felt Tails back up into him so that they couldn't be caught off guard.

"The good ol' back-to-back strategy?" Sonic inquired as the duo slowly rotated in a circle, looking for any traces of the evil doctor.

The whole are lit up before Tails could respond, revealing Eggman standing alone in the very back of the room. He was standing on a platform twenty feet in the air, the bright lights reflecting off the black shades he wore over his eyes at all times.

Sonic, looking around the room in case of traps, slowly made his way closer to Eggman, noticing the protective glass dome around the doctor's entire body. "If you think that thing's gonna keep me from kicking your ass, you've really gone off the deep end, Eggman."

The left half of Eggman's mouth slowly developed into a grin, as he let out a slow, evenly-paced chuckle. "Oh, it's for protection, hedgehog," he snarled, reaching behind his back for what Sonic assumed would be his gun. "But not from you."

Sonic stopped in his tracks as Eggman revealed what was behind his back: a small, hand-sized capsule with a button at one end. A detonator.

"The machine," Sonic heard Tails whisper behind him.

"So you do have something here after all," the hedgehog called out to Eggman. "And here we thought you were bluffing."

"Oh, the machine is very real," Eggman said in his low, sinister voice. "Hmm," he thought out loud while scratching his head. "I guess there's no harm in me telling you about it. It's not like there's anything you can do about it. You see, this glass," Eggman tapped on the glass dome for effect. "It's here to keep me from getting roboticized."

"Roboticized?" Sonic and Tails said in unison.

"A glorious idea, is it not?" Eggman shouted with great gusto, raising his fist in the air for emphasis. "All these years having to see my brilliant plans foiled by the likes of you and your pals. But no more. Starting with you two, I will make all of Mobius's inhabitants my robotic slaves; you will be no different from the mindless swatbots currently patrolling my base. With you finally out of my hair, there will be no one to stop me from creating the Eggman Empire."

Eggman slowly lowered his fist and glared at Sonic, as if daring him to make a move. Sonic quickly spun into a ball and jolted forward, hitting the glass dome surrounding Eggman with all his might. This was followed by the fox spinning into the glass, and swiping it hard with his tails for good measure.

Sonic jumped back from the glass and looked up at the evil doctor. He was in the same exact pose, looking as unfazed as the glass was to their attacks. He hurriedly looked around for the machine that Eggman was speaking of; the one that would roboticize them.

The doctor let out a low chuckle that seemed to last for hours. "Don't think I'd be so foolish as to leave my machine out in the open for you to destroy. Though I admit it's something I almost overlooked. Face it, hedgehog, I've thought this out to perfection; you can't win. Just give up."

"Sorry, Eggman," said Sonic as he raced back toward the glass dome as fast as he could. "But those words aren't in my vocab."

Knuckles grunted as he punched the door with all his might, watching satisfied as it promptly fell to the floor.

"You never cease to make a dramatic entrance, do you?" came a voice from inside the room.

Mighty walked in right behind Knuckles, who was staring straight ahead at the purple creature standing in front of them. "Uh, do we know you?" Mighty was certain he had never seen the creature before.

"Well, maybe you don't," said the purple weasel, as he downed his bottle of liquor. In one swift move, he reached behind his back and grabbed his sniper rifle from its holster. "But I'm sure Knuckles remembers me. It's only been a few days since we last spoke." The weasel wasn't pointing the gun at either of them, but rather held it limply at his side, barrel down. However, Knuckles knew he could raise it and make a pinpoint accurate shot in a split second.

"You- you double-crosser," said Knuckles, clearly flustered. "Since when do you work for Eggman, you slime?"

"Oh, Knuckles, now I'm hurt." The weasel took his fedora and placed it over his heart in mock-sadness. "You can call me all the hurtful names you want, but don't ever accuse me of taking allegiance with someone."

Knuckles felt himself tensing up all over, his fists clenched tightly and his lower lip quivering. He was a very proud creature, and he did not react well to being taken advantage of.

"It's quite simple, really," the weasel continued. "You paid me for information. Eggman paid me double to give it to you. Plus a bonus if I kept watch over his precious machine."

Before Mighty could restrain Knuckles, the echidna charged at the weasel. Knuckles knew the bullet was coming right at him, but did nothing to avoid it as the small bit of metal found its way into his left side. He kept running at the creature and took a swing at him with his right, only to see him nimbly jump out of the way before the punch could connect.

"Knuckles," called Mighty to his friend. He ran to his side to check if he was bleeding. "He said the machine's in this room," he said in a low voice to the echidna. "It'll be easier for you to search for it; I'll distract our purple friend." Knuckles opened his mouth to argue, but Mighty had already made his way toward the weasel.

The echidna scanned the whole room looking for a place where the machine might be hidden. He entertained the possibility of punching through every wall, but he knew Mighty was running on limited time. He shut his eyes and tried to drown out everything else. He heard a high-pitched voice shout something in his head, but he couldn't make out what it was saying. With his eyes still closed, he followed the sound of the voice until it disappeared. He opened his eyes and found himself staring a section of the wall that looked the same as the rest of it. Following his instincts, he wound up and punched with all his might.

He stared in amazement at the circular machine, emanating a multicolored glow due to seven different colored gems placed around the machine. "That bastard found the chaos emeralds," Knuckles said, still dumbfounded at his discovery.

"That's as far as you go, mate." Knuckles put his hands up as he felt the cold steel of the barrel touch the back of his neck. "Your friend put up a good fight, but it had me wonderin' why you weren't joinin' in."

Knuckles dared a slight sideways glance to get a look at Mighty's condition. He was face down on the floor a few feet away from the weasel with visible bruises on his forehead. He turned his attention back to the machine as its humming got louder, and it started glow even brighter than before.

"Looks like Eggman's activated the machine," snarled the weasel, his gun still fixed on the back of the echidna's head. "And lucky for you, you get front row seats to the action."

In the corner of his eye, he saw Mighty lunge at the weasel's legs, making him fire a shot wildly into the air. "Go Knuckles," the armadillo screamed with what strength he had left.

In one lunge, the echidna drilled his way completely through the circular machine. The walls around him started to crumble, and he saw a flash of bright light before his world went pitch black.

**To be continued...**

**Sorry if the first chapter was a bit long, but I felt like the whole infiltration of Eggman's base needed to be together in one chapter. I plan on this being a lengthy story, so if you like it, there will be plenty more to come. I already have the ending for the story thought up, but I'm open for ideas on how to fill up the middle. I will have the characters interact with humans, but rest easy: Chris Thorndyke will not be showing up in this story. If you're a fan of Chris, I apologize.**

**Please review and be honest with all comments and suggestions. But not too harsh.**


	2. Not on Mobius Anymore

**Author's note: Well, I finally got chapter 2 done. The purpose of this chapter and the next is to show the characters comprehending the situation they're in, so they may not push the plot forward too much. Blah blah blah, I don't own these characters, blah blah blah. Enjoy! **

Chapter 2 Not on Mobius Anymore

Eggman slowly rubbed his head as he struggled to move his arms. He was on the floor hunched over with his head resting on his knees. He tried turning his head from side to side, something he also struggled with, alerting him that his muscles were not fully awake. He ran his fingers over his bald head once more, realizing that his goggles were missing from their usual resting spot. He laid his fingers just above his nose, and chuckled at the result.

"Of course," he said in a low tone. "I put them on when I activated the machine." Every muscle in his body came to a complete stop as he was reminded of what had previously transpired.

"The machine," he said, scratching his head furiously as if that would make him remember faster. "I activated it. Did it work?" He looked around anxiously for any signs of Sonic and his friends being roboticized. However, the room was empty of any life besides himself. He noticed that all the lights were out, and the glass dome he was in was shattered at the top. He examined his gloves, stained red by the numerous cuts from the broken glass. He put on his usual scowl and decided he'd have to investigate a little to figure out if his machine worked.

He patted his back pocket, realizing that his gun was not on his person. He patted the floor of the platform he was on looking for it, ignoring the broken glass that littered the ground. Observing that all the lights were out, and the platform had been lowered to the ground, Eggman assumed that power to the immediate area had been lost.

He slowly stood up, bracing himself against the glass for support; he could slowly sense the feeling in his limbs returning. He put his goggles back onto his head before blasting a hole through the glass dome.

Eggman slowly wandered through his base with his head constantly turning and his handgun just a motion away. He noticed the damage that had been done by the intruders, making mental note to repair those areas later. "Blasted echidna," he grumbled, observing the holes that had been punched through the floor.

He walked through a set of doors and immediately started scanning the walls. "Let's see if we can get some power restored to the base." He played around with the controls for a while, trying every combination of button-pushing and lever-pulling that could possibly return power to his base. At last, he was met with a response as the lights overhead brightly flashed to life.

"Ha ha," he shouted loudly into the air. "Now, perhaps I can get a few answers as to what happened here."

**. . .**

"Ugh," Sonic groaned as he felt his side get poked.

"Did you hear that? It made a sound." Sonic didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded like that of a child. But at the moment, his eyelids felt like cinderblocks and refused to open.

"Does that mean it's not dead?"

"No, it's gotta be dead; it ain't moving."

"What is that thing anyway?"

"It looks like a big kitty."

"Don't be stupid. It's got spikes on its back; and besides, it's blue."

"Poke it with the stick again."

Sonic let out another grunt as the wielder of the stick made sure to jam him hard in the stomach with it. "Cut it out," he weakly moaned as he struggled to find any movement in his limbs. He would have kept quiet if he had known the raucous he would cause around him with his words.

"It talked; the blue thing talked."

"Cats aren't supposed to talk."

"I told you, it's not a cat."

"It's still not supposed to talk."

Sonic had had enough. He opened his eyes, and was met with a bright glare from the sun. He closed them tight again, only to open them once more. This time he made sure to open them gradually, letting the sunlight slowly drift into his eyesight. He could still only make out silhouettes of the bodies crowded around him, but he could tell from the voices that he wouldn't recognize any of them. This assumption was confirmed, as he found himself staring into the eyes of five bipedal organisms. They were human, like Dr. Eggman, but he could tell by their voice and appearance that they were only children; probably around the same age as Tails.

The thought of his friend seemed to reawaken Sonic's memory. A vision of Eggman's base flashed through his memory. He remembered running at the doctor as he pushed the trigger to his machine. He turned and saw Tails as they were all both enveloped by a bright light; after that, everything was a blur.

He groaned in frustration as he tried to push himself up, but found his muscles were still weak. "Hey," he said, the strength in his voice starting to come back. "Can you guys help me get up?"

The children all looked back at him wide-eyed, as if Sonic was about to leap at them and start tearing away at their flesh. "Go get the principal," one of the kids said in a loud whisper to another. Sonic watched as the kid who was spoken too nodded quickly and ran off.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you," he said, trying to sound calm and relaxed. "But I'm worried about my friends and I need to go find them. I just need one or two of you to get me back on my feet."

Sonic smiled as the boy on the far left, by far the shortest one, started walking towards him. "Tommy, wait," the kid next to him said as he put his hand on the little boy's shoulder. The boy whose name was Tommy shook it off and continued over to Sonic.

The boy placed his left arm under Sonic's chest and started to position his right arm behind the hedgehog before he was waved off. "Trust me," said Sonic, placing his hands firmly on the ground in a ready position, "you don't wanna grab back there."

Sonic felt the boy push upwards with all his might, adding his other hand for extra strength. He saw a girl walk over to his other side and start to pull him up by the arm. Sonic felt life slowly flowing back into his arms, and pushed against the blacktop to get himself upright. He stumbled back a few steps, as his legs needed a minute to regain their sturdiness. He then proceeded to stretch his legs, extending each one out and bending towards it. A dozen more kids had gathered around him since he first gained consciousness, alerting him that it was probably time to get going. He looked at the two who helped him up, gave them thumbs up, and sped off into the distance. He could only imagine the shocked expressions on their faces.

**. . .**

Knuckles plugged his nose to protect himself from the unbearable odor. He slowly made his way through the dark alley, all the while trying to take in his surroundings. He had woken up in an alley connected to his current one fifteen minutes ago, and had yet to figure out where he was. If it was the city like he suspected, it bore no resemblance to any of the cities he was familiar with on Mobius. However, he realized that he spent close to all of his time on his island, so he never visited the cities that much.

The stench he had been trying to avoid got incredibly strong, forcing him to turn to his left and vomit. Across the alley was a trash bin filled with animal carcasses. The ones hanging off the edge looked freshly killed, but the ones at the bottom of the bin were rotting away. Knuckles quickly moved past it, still making sure to keep quiet.

Due to his hasty movement, he walked into a hanging ladder while not looking. He rubbed his head as the "clang" of the ladder rang out in the tight alleyway.

"What the hell is that?" came a voice from the other end of the alley. It appeared the clamor caused by running into the ladder had alerted a couple of citizens. However, they didn't appear to be very friendly. Two men, both of them in shabby clothing and with suspicious faces, approached the echidna.

"Is that an echidna?" Both men were tall and skinny, and appeared to be malnourished. Knuckles assumed they were both homeless, forced to live in the alleys and scavenge for food. He had a feeling that was exactly what they were doing now.

"I've never seen an echidna stand on two legs. Is it frowning?"

"If you're thinking of cutting me up and eating me for dinner," said Knuckles, getting enjoyment from their shocked faces, "I suggest you keep looking. I'm not on the menu."

He smiled as one guy dropped his knife and ran the other way, not caring whether his partner was behind him or not. "You don't scare me," claimed the lone man, although his quivering knees claimed otherwise.

Knuckles watched as the man charged at him with the knife held across his chest, ready to slash horizontally once he reached his target. The echidna, unfazed by the man's hectic charge, slid under the blade and delivered a fierce uppercut to the man's midsection. He only flinched because of the loud noise that came from the man flying into some nearby trash cans.

"Who's out there?" came a shout from above. Knuckles put his hand over his eyes as he looked up at the flashlight shining down on him and the man. Like his partner before him, the man dropped his knife and ran off down the alley. "Freeze, don't move!" shouted the voice from above as he hurriedly made his way down the metal steps that led from the streets up to his apartment.

Knuckles, confident in his ability to handle himself, stayed and waited for the person to make his way down to the ground. The man who dropped down from the ladder was dressed in a brown trench coat with a hat to match. He immediately shone his flashlight on the echidna's face, making him flinch from the brightness. Knuckles could see the surprise on the man's face; he was not expecting anyone to actually wait around for him.

"Hey, do you mind pointing that somewhere else?" Knuckles once again took enjoyment out of seeing the man take a few steps back. "It's starting to hurt my eyes."

The man took a deep breath in order to regain his composure. He put a stern face on, trying to not look intimidated. Knuckles figured he was some sort of authoritative figure; someone who wasn't supposed to show any fear when on the job. He remained calm as the man took out his gun and pointed it at his head.

"What are you?" asked the man, trying not to stammer. He wanted to sound as confident as he could. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Knuckles kept staring straight ahead, having seemingly not heard the questions he was asked. He was hastily trying to piece together the observations he had made into an answer as to where he was. This was now the third human he had run across; back on Mobius, Eggman was the only human he was aware of.

Knuckles started walking towards the man in the jacket, ignoring the question that was previously addressed to him. "You seem different from those other guys," he said, looking the man right in the eye.

"Other guys?" The man scratched his head, thinking back to the noise that brought him outside. "Oh, you must've run into some thugs. Not exactly uncommon if you're wandering around the alleyways."

"And you're not one of them?" asked Knuckles, who was now only a couple feet away from the man. Despite being over twice his height, the man remained unnerved.

"Me? No, I'm a cop." The policeman now realized that the creature in front of him didn't comprehend the world around him. He lowered his gun in an attempt to show the creature he meant him no harm. "What about you, huh? You haven't answered my questions yet."

The echidna crossed his arms in order to make himself look imposing. "My name is Knuckles; Knuckles the echidna."

The cop put his gun back in the holster and extended his arm. "Lieutenant Humphrey Beckard. But you can call me Hummer; that's what my friends always called me." He noticed the spikes on the knuckles of the echidna, and chose not to fully enclose his hand when shaking. "So what are ya doing here, anyway?" he asked after the formalities had finished. "If ya don't mind me saying, you seem a bit lost. Ain't ya ever been to Station Square before?"

Knuckles's thoughts had been confirmed; he was definitely not on Mobius anymore. "This is going to sound crazy," he started, still trying to remain calm, "but what planet are we on?"

Hummer looked back at him as if he was speaking another language. "Boy, buddy, you really are lost. Did you hit your head or somethin'? Don't worry, you haven't been abducted by aliens or anything; you're still on Earth."

**. . .**

Eggman got off the elevator at the fourth floor; the floor where the roboticizing machine was located. By this point, he was nonplussed by the degree of the damage caused by Sonic and his friends. However, these areas were noticeably worse due to the presence of the destructive echidna. Live electrical wires hung from the ceiling, hissing like snakes waiting for prey to wander close enough.

As soon as the doctor entered the room he could tell something was wrong. The wall on the far side of the room had been broken through, and he could still smell the gunpowder from the bounty hunter's rifle. There had been a struggle in the room, and it appeared Knuckles and Mighty may have stumbled across the machine.

He quickly made his way over to the machine, still staying alert for any unwanted guests. "I can't believe this," cried Eggman upon seeing the condition of his machine; a hole had been blown clean through it. To make matters worse, all but one of the chaos emeralds were gone from their slots in the machine.

"Foiled again by that blasted hedgehog and his friends!" he cried, kicking the machine. He took a seat against the wall and put his hand on his head, contemplating his next move. He looked around, surveying the destruction of the room. He had yet to make his way through the whole base, but he knew most of the rooms and hallways looked similar to the one he was in. It would all have to be rebuilt before he could even think about going forward with his plans. "And after all that time it took to gather all seven emeralds."

He took a minute to think back to the events right before waking up alone in his lair. He looked up thoughtfully, as if someone had flicked the on-switch in his brain. "That flash of light," he said faintly, remembering seeing his archenemy get enveloped in light. "It happened right when I activated the machine."

He briskly got back on his feet and made his way over to the machine and the spot where one emerald still remained. His thoughts were confirmed upon lifting the jewel, which dimly glowed with its yellow fluorescence. "The power has been drained from the emerald," he said, his eyes growing wide. "The machine must not have been destroyed until after I started it; it was working."

He pocketed the emerald, making a mental note to put it in a safe place later. He leaned against the wall and delved back into deep thought. The machine had been activated; that much was clear. And it was also clear that the machine had been destroyed, but not until after it had started up. The only question was: what did that mean? It appeared from his tour around the base that the roboticizing function of the machine had not been carried out. But the chaos emerald had been drained of power. Surely that wouldn't have happened if the machine was only running for a second or two.

Eggman was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps echoing through the base. "Perhaps my robots are still wandering around," he said, pulling out his gun and heading in the direction of the noise.

When he started getting closer to the footsteps, however, he could make out two voices; neither sounded familiar to him. He quietly slinked his way along the corridor, deciding it'd better to investigate the source of the noise before revealing himself to them. He looked up just in time to see their shadows rounding the corner; they were heading back his way. Quickly, he located a side passage to wait in while they got closer.

"Most of it seems to be heavily damaged," he heard one of them say.

"Damaged or not," spoke the other, "this building is a remarkable find. The technology in here far surpasses that of our own. We'll report this right away to the supervisor, and come back with a whole excavation team."

Eggman had heard enough. "I wouldn't count on that happening," he said, stepping out into the main hallway, gun raised, to meet his guests. He was taken aback from what he saw.

Humans. Two of them. Just like him. They were both decked out in all beige, including a hat to match. As one of them had mentioned earlier, they appeared to be part of an excavation team. But Eggman had no intention of his base becoming an exhibit. Without warning he shot the man on the left in the head. He smiled maliciously as the man left standing stood, frozen on the spot, looking in shock at his fallen comrade.

"Wait, wait!" he cried, not wanting to end up like his friend. "There must be a misunderstanding. We're part of an excavation team; we've been checking out these ruins for two weeks now. When this building suddenly appeared last night, we were told to check it out." His voice got more frantic and high-pitched the more he talked.

"Ruins? Suddenly appeared? What are you talking about?" Eggman slowly walked up to the man, all the while refusing to lower his gun. His tall figure and sinister grin clearly intimidate the man, as he sank to his knees in a begging motion.

"Please, don't kill me. I promise I won't tell anyone about this place."

Eggman stared at the man through his black shades, disgusted. He spat directly on the man, who continued to blubber and sweat profusely. He put on the best sad face he could manage and sank down to be level with the man. "Now I just can't stand to watch a grown man cry," he said in a mocking tone. He roughly grabbed the man by the collar and picked him up.

"Now," he growled, pushing his nose right up against the man's face. "I've got questions, and you're going to answer them."

The man weakly shook his head. He was clearly too terrified to utter any words.

"You said something about my base suddenly appearing in these ruins. What did you mean? Where are we?" The man continued to whine unintelligibly, forcing Eggman to give him a rough shake. "Answer me!"

"W-w-we're in the Mystic Ruins. The closest city is Station Square; it's just a train ride away. Like I said, no one had ever seen this base before last night. It was just… here. Like magic."

Eggman dropped the individual onto the floor, having to take in the information that was just given to him. "What planet is this?"

The man looked back at the doctor as if he was stupid. He would soon realize this was a big mistake. "What do you mean?"

"Did I stutter?" Eggman moved closer so that the barrel of his gun was touching the man's forehead. "My patience is waning with you. What planet is this?"

"Earth, planet Earth!" the man shouted hysterically.

Eggman once again put on his signature grin. "Thank you."

He headed for the nearest exit, reminding himself to later dispose of the two bodies and clean up the blood. Somehow, the destruction of the machine had caused the emeralds to initiate another procedure; warping. Him and his base had been teleported to another planet, and he assumed the same had happened to his arch-nemesis.

He walked through the busted double-doors into the sunlight. His base appeared to be in the middle of a vast jungle that stretched many miles in each direction. On the horizon, as the man had said, he could see the tallest buildings of a nearby city.

"Perhaps fate hasn't been as unkind to me as I originally thought," he mused, stroking his mustache. "I've been given a clean slate; a brand new world to conquer."

**To be continued...**

**Hope you enjoyed it. For those of you who are wondering if Tails fell off a cliff, don't worry; he'll be back in the next chapter. If you couldn't tell, I feel like Eggman doesn't always get portrayed as a serious villain, so I'm actually trying to make him, you know, evil. I highly encourage readers to leave comments; it usually motivates me to get the chapters out faster.**


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